DANH VO:
RELICS

“A relic is what remains, what’s left over.” In this memoir once-removed, Andrew Berardini journeys into the heart of the work of Danh Vo to discover how historical forces find form in our individual lives. Inspired by an exhibition never seen in Mexico City, Berardini’s deeply personal investigation of Vo’s work weaves one story into the other and finds along the way the clash and mesh of civilizations, a sexy Statue of Liberty, the head of a decapitated martyr, the collapse of the American labor movement, John Keats’ tombstone, the holy trinity in a license plate, the ravages of war, a battered encyclopedia, a terrorist’s typewriter, the history of saints in a boy’s wing. In Relics, Berardini explores through Vo’s work how art and poetry gives utterance to history’s shadows on our lives; and through it, to make our own stories.
This is the second volume of “Air Mexico,” a literary series investigating art exhibitions initiated by Mousse and commissioned by kurimanzutto.